


Pride

by gardnerhill



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Animals, Other, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-02
Updated: 2013-04-02
Packaged: 2017-12-07 06:20:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/745281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ostensibly, sonnets about a lamed lion and a jackal. Ostensibly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pride

**Author's Note:**

> 2011 July Watson's Woes Prompt #27: Poetry.

**I.**

A lion fights to keep his hunting ground  
And roars to tell the pride their land's secure -  
But, lamed and penned away, cannot endure  
The bars and cages where no pride is found.  
"Go home and lick your wounds." My life turned 'round,  
I hobbled safe and grim, my steps unsure.  
But chance and need conspired to bring my cure  
In this mad jackal's form, this bond profound.  
Again I stalk and roar, I land my blows  
And drive away the evil from my land -  
One stride behind this creature of the night  
Whose jackal-eyes see all, this one who knows  
The doings of the smallest creature - and  
Whose jackal-grip a lion's heart holds tight.

 

***

**II.**

The fools! Can they not see what's there to see?  
Their noses, eyes, and ears refuse to run?  
Pah! Thick as stones, the lot. It's up to me  
To sniff the truth, if only for my fun.  
They loathe me - lions hate all jackal-kind,  
Including those they beg to give them help.  
My brand-new angry den-mate too, I'll find;  
He'll limp off, cursing at the freakish whelp.  
...Days turn to months, and still he's at my side,  
My life - my person \- rapid to defend  
From those who'd kill - and fellows who'd deride;  
This stranger, made my first and only friend.  
A jackal's wits may guide my steps, but more:  
My yapping bark's become a lion's roar.


End file.
